


Buck Rogers in the 21st Century

by Aegir



Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: 20th Century History, Gen, Old Movie Serials
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-15
Updated: 2015-11-15
Packaged: 2018-05-01 15:56:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5211893
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aegir/pseuds/Aegir
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>The scientists look grim as the radio goes silent.  An ice avalanche cascades down onto the wreckage of the airship, burying the trapped, unconscious, crew.</i>
</p>
<p><i>“Of course, the future isn’t all that great,” Steve says.</i>  </p>
<p>Or: The author watched the first episode of 'Buck Rogers' and got hit by a juggernaut of parallels.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Buck Rogers in the 21st Century

It’s not the first time Sam has found Steve watching old black-and-white footage in the dark. In fact worrying about just how often he does that is one of the reasons Sam has taken to dropping in unexpectedly.

This isn’t one of the old war reels though; the soaring orchestra music is accompanying a list of actors’ names. It seems Sam has come in right at the start of an old fiction movie.

“Have a seat, Sam,” Steve waves a hand at the screen. He’s barely looked round. It doesn’t come over as rude, more as worryingly intent. “You know Buck Rogers?”

“Heard of him. Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, right?”

“Yeah. Bucky and I used to love the comic strip.” On the screen men talking into a radio are being intercut with shots of an airship. “We used to act it out, only we spilt the part. Buck and Rogers. Kind of split itself, really. The radio series was great as well. We’d never heard anything like it. Ray guns, space travel. Amazing stuff.”

_“What’s your exact position?”_ asks a scientist into the radio.

_“Can’t say within about 300 miles, sir,”_ replies the guy who is obviously the square-jawed hero.

“They changed the story a bit for the Saturday serial,” Steve says. “Originally Buck Rogers inhaled weird gas during a mine cave in that put him into suspended animation. In the serial he’s flying an airship over the Arctic and gets caught in a storm. They were drawing on the crash of the _Italia_ , obviously.”

It’s not obvious to Sam. That must show on his face, because Steve says, “I can’t believe nobody’s heard of the airship _Italia_ these days. There were headlines around the world for weeks. It took nearly two months to rescue the survivors from the gondola, the search for the missing went on a lot longer. Amundsen – surely you’ve heard of Roald Amundsen – disappeared on a rescue mission. Never found. Bucky had a paper round then, he used to get up extra early so we could read the papers before he delivered them. Every morning first thing we’d want to know would be if the news from the Arctic was good or bad, if they’d found more survivors or if there’d been another tragedy. We thought it was one of those tales that would never be forgotten.”

On the screen the hero’s teenaged sidekick is talking into the radio, while the hero tries unsuccessfully to restrain a couple of obvious redshirts from baling out in the middle of a blizzard.

“So they know,” Steve says, “If the airship crashes and they survive, they might well starve or die of exposure before anyone can reach them. Even if they can keep the radio going.”

“… _forced down in some inaccessible spot_ …” says the television.

“So. They put themselves into suspended animation deliberately.”

The hero is shouting “ _Buddy, Buddy!”_ at the sidekick.

“We went every Saturday,” Steve says. “It was a serial, ran before the main film. There were twelve episodes. Cliffhangers every week. Had us hooked.”

The airship crashes down onto ice. The lead scientist back at the base is still pressing for a position. The orchestra is going crazy. Steve’s eyes haven’t left the screen once.

“1939, it was. A weekly trip to the future.”

The scientists look grim as the radio goes silent. An ice avalanche cascades down onto the wreckage of the airship, burying the trapped, unconscious, crew.

“Of course, the future isn’t all that great,” Steve says. “Trips to Saturn, but also a crazed dictator ruling the Earth.   Well, it wouldn’t make for much of a drama if the heroes just woke up and the future was fine and peaceful.”

“So,” Sam says. “I’m guessing the hero takes on the bad guys.”

“Sure,” says Steve. A remarkably loud, ugly looking, aircraft is now flying across the screen. The transportation of the Future, no doubt. “Jumps right back in, his only question is who needs fighting.”

They watch as the men from the future find the hero and the sidekick, extract them from the wreck, and watch them start to awaken.

Steve says, “Well. He’s not alone.”

“No,” Sam says. “I guess not.”

**Author's Note:**

> The 1938 'Buck Rogers' serial can be found on YouTube. (If you watch beyond the first couple of episodes you'll see a familiar looking screen crawl, although I believe George Lucas actually copied this from the similar 'Flash Gordon' serial.) 
> 
> The crash of the Italia and its aftermath really happened. I've not seen anyone comment on the similarities with 'Buck Rogers' but they seem quite marked to me. I think it highly likely Steve Rogers would have known both.


End file.
